Cyprus 🇨🇾

Cyprus is a country in Europe with a population of 1,251,488. Its capital is Nicosia. The official currency is EUR, and the main languages are Greek, Turkish.

Quick facts

Capital: Nicosia
Continent: Europe
Population: 1,251,488
Area: 9,251 km²
Density: 135 people per km²
Currency: EUR
Languages: Greek, Turkish
ISO code: CY

Where Cyprus sits

Cyprus 🇨🇾 is one of 46 countries in Europe, with its capital at Nicosia. It covers 9,251 square kilometres — 164th in the world — and is home to about 1,251,488 people, 157th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, France and Italy. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Cyprus compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Cyprus sits closest to Mauritius and Eswatini. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Lebanon and Kosovo.

At 135 people per square kilometre it is about 2.3 times the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by population than by area, so it is more crowded than its size alone suggests.

Greek is an official language in 2 countries here, among them Greece. The EUR is shared with 25 other countries, including Andorra, Austria and Belgium, and 22 others.

To see Cyprus next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Cyprus

Nicosia is the capital, and it sits inland in the middle of the island rather than on the coast. For the flag, Cyprus is the one that shows its own island in copper, because copper made ancient Cyprus rich.

The flag of Cyprus: white, copper and green

🇨🇾 The flag is a white flag with a copper-coloured map of the island above two crossed green olive branches. The olive branches and the white background stand for peace between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. The copper colour stands for the copper ore on the island, which may have given Cyprus its name.

Region and neighbours

Cyprus is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon. As an island country it has no land neighbours.

Three facts about Cyprus

Cyprus is the third-largest island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily and Sardinia.
Rich deposits of copper made ancient Cyprus important to the empires around it.
The flag of Cyprus and the flag of Kosovo are the only national flags with a map of the country on them.

Sources: Wikipedia: Cyprus, Wikipedia: Flag of Cyprus, Wikipedia: Nicosia, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Cyprus

European capitals quiz — match Cyprus to Nicosia
European flags quiz — spot the Cyprus flag among its neighbours
Island nations quiz — Cyprus is an island country

Quizzes that include Cyprus

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Cyprus those are:

Europe map quiz — place it on a blank map
Europe flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Europe capitals quiz — match it to Nicosia
Cyprus capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Cyprus
Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Nearby countries

Albania 🇦🇱 — capital Tirana
Andorra 🇦🇩 — capital Andorra la Vella
Austria 🇦🇹 — capital Vienna
Belarus 🇧🇾 — capital Minsk
Belgium 🇧🇪 — capital Brussels
Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 — capital Sarajevo
Bulgaria 🇧🇬 — capital Sofia
Croatia 🇭🇷 — capital Zagreb
Czechia 🇨🇿 — capital Prague
Denmark 🇩🇰 — capital Copenhagen
Estonia 🇪🇪 — capital Tallinn
Finland 🇫🇮 — capital Helsinki

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Cyprus flag?

The flag of Cyprus is a white flag with a copper-coloured map of the island above two crossed green olive branches. The olive branches and the white background stand for peace between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. The copper colour stands for the copper ore on the island, which may have given Cyprus its name.

Which countries border Cyprus?

None. Cyprus is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon, so it has no land borders with other countries.